Ziusudra, the Sumerian Noah

[everybee]

I saw something on TV recently about the origin of the Noah's Arc Myth. The original story seems to have been about a Sumerian who was caught in a flood on the Euphrates River on a barge with some animals and other people. Noah is also mentioned in the Quran and Hadiths as being a prophet (besides the book of Genesis). The story seemed to have reached the fantastic stage seen in Genesis and refered to in the Quran after mis-translation(s) of Sumerian text.



Ziusudra, the Sumerian Noah


The first book about Noah's flood that makes sense

Noah's Ark and the Ziusudra Epic: Sumerian Origins of the Myth is a book that takes a fresh look at six versions of the Ancient Near East flood myth, demythologizes them, and combines the various story elements like pieces of a jigsaw picture puzzle into one coherent story. There actually was an archaeologically confirmed flood about 2900 BC on which the ark stories were based, but it was a local river flood, not a global deluge. The original ark stories were about a small commercial river barge that was hauling a few hundred cattle, sheep, and goats, but there were no kangaroos, lions, apes, elephants, or giraffes on that cattle barge.

The emphasis in this book is on what was physically possible, technologically practical, and consistent wth archaeological facts in ancient Sumer, now southern Iraq. The result of this synthesis is a reconstruction of a lost legend about a Sumerian king named Ziusudra who was chief executive of the city-state Shuruppak at the end of the Jemdet Nasr period about 2900 BC. A six-day thunderstorm caused the Euphrates River to rise 15 cubits, overflow the levees, and flood Shuruppak and a few other cities in Sumer. A few feet of yellow sediment deposited by this river flood is archaeologically attested and artifacts at about this sediment level have been radiocarbon dated.

When the levees overflowed, Ziusudra (Noah) boarded a commercial river barge that had been hauling grain, beer, and other cargo on the Euphrates River. The barge floated down the river into the Persian (Arabian) Gulf where it grounded in an estuary at the mouth of the river. Ziusudra (Noah) then offered a sacrifice on an altar at the top of a nearby hill which storytellers mistranslated as mountain. This led them to falsely assume that the nearby barge had grounded on top of a mountain. Actually it never came close to a mountain.

Skeptics are correct when they say Noah's flood (as it is commonly understood) could not have happened, because many of the story elements, such as grounding of the ark in the mountains of Ararat, would have been physically impossible. This book uncovers how the mountains of Ararat got involved in the story (Noah did not go there) and locates the precise spot (within a few meters) of where Noah offered his sacrifice. This is a historical site (not on a mountain) that has already been excavated by archaeologists.

After the ark grounded, Noah met other survivors of the flood and some of the things they discussed are mentioned in the myth that priests and storytellers told about the flood. Noah's family separated and Noah had to flee into exile, because of conflicts between Noah and other survivors of the flood. The place where Noah lived until his death is identified in this book. Noah's sons traveled northwest on foot along the Tigris River and settled at a place identified in this book.

The incredible numbers in Genesis 5 were the result of an ancient scribe mistranslating some archaic pre-cuneiform numbers into cuneiform sexagesimal numbers. The incredible numbers in the Sumerian King List were also mistranslated by another ancient scribe. This book successfully matches the Genesis 5 numbers to the Sumerian King List numbers.


Continued:
http://www.flood-myth.com/

[everybee]

See also

http://www.flood-myth.com/faq.htm

http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/6flood.htm

[everybee]

Some places Noah is mentioned in the Quran: 3:30, 4:161, 6:84, 7:57, 11:40, 71:1-29

[everybee]

Here's the book at amazon.com. Click 'next page' to read the table of contents and other parts of the book.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0966784014/ref=sib_dp_pt/002-2957444-1234410#reader-link

[everybee]

Frequently Asked Questions


Was Noah's flood story fiction or fact?

Much of the flood story was fiction, but there was a real river flood on which the original flood legend was based. Ziusudra, the Sumerian Noah was listed in the Sumerian King List and therefore may have been a real person, but there is no hard evidence that Noah/Ziusudra existed.

Was there a global flood?

No. The flood of Noah was a Euphrates River flood in southern Sumer similar to the flood of 1985 in southern Iraq. The "earth" in Genesis 7:17-18 refers to the ground/land in the flooded region, not the entire planet.

Did the ark ground on Mount Ararat?

No. Mount Ararat was not involved in the original flood legend. The ark grounded in an estuary at the mouth of the Euphrates River. The mountains of Ararat got involved in the story because Noah's son Shem traveled on foot to the mountains of Ararat after the barge grounded. Story tellers confused the mountain that Noah's son visited with the hill on which Noah offered a sacrifice. The ark never came close to a mountain.

But doesn't the Epic of Gilgamesh have the ark grounding on Mount Nisir?

No. The word KUR usually translated Mount can mean mound or hill or country. The river barge grounded on a mound of mud or sand in an estuary at the mouth of the river. Several other clauses in the Epic of Gilgamesh have been misunderstood or mistranslated.

When did the flood occur?

The Euphrates River flooded about 2900 BC at the end of the Jemdet Nasr period and the beginning of the Early Dynastic period. This river flood left a few feet of yellow mud in Shuruppak and a few other Sumerian cities. Polychrome pottery from the Jemdet Nasr period was found immediately below this flood layer. Hence Noah/Ziusudra reigned during the end of the Jemdet Nasr period. The flood layer has been radiocarbon dated to 2900 BC.

How did Noah build such a large boat without help?

He had lots of help. Noah was a king and kings delegate responsibility to managers who hire workmen to do the job. Noah did not build the ark with his own hands.

How could a wooden ark 450 feet long withstand the stresses from a storm and not break up?

The ark was not a mono-hull galleon, it was an array of small flat-bottom pontoons roped together. Large modern river barges are also assembled from dozens of small barges chained together.

What was gopher wood?

"Gopher wood" was a transliteration of gish gipar (meadow wood) or kupar (cypress wood).

How could all species of animals fit in the ark?

They didn't. All of the kinds of animals that Noah had in his stockyard were put in the ark, but these were domesticated ranch animals and there were less than 280 of them.

How could the animals know when to come to the ark and where to find it?

The owners of the animals had their herdsmen take the animals to the ark to be transported as cargo. Noah had his herdsmen load into the barge all of the livestock in his stockyards.

How did Noah prevent all the other people in his city from boarding the ark?

He didn't have to. The other people climbed high hills far from the river. These hills are not mentioned in Genesis 7:19-20 because they were too far from the river for Noah to see.

Did everybody drown in the flood except Noah and his family? Are all the people of of the world descended from Noah?

No. Everybody did not drown. Hundreds, possibly thousands of Sumerians drowned in the flooded area, but there were many thousands of survivors of Noah's river flood, even in his own city, and especially in distant lands not affected by the flood.

Did people live to be more than 900 years before the flood?

No. That was an ancient mistranslation of archaic numbers. Noah lived to be 83.

How could Noah know years in advance that a flood was coming to provide enough time to build the ark?

The ark was not built as a lifeboat. It was built long before the flood as a commercial river barge for transporting cattle, grain, and other cargo. Noah learned that the flood was coming only when he saw heavy rain falling. This was a few hours before the river overflowed the levees. Noah did not know the flood was coming when he commissioned building the river barge.

How do you explain the conflict between the 1-year flood in Genesis 8:13 and the 7-day flood in Gilgamesh XI,129-131?

There is no conflict. The river flood lasted 6 or 7 days. During the rest of the year the ark was drifting about the Persian Gulf. Genesis 8 refers to the "waters" and does not use the word "flood" or "ocean" or "sea".

Legends about Noah's flood can be found all over the world, such as the Hawaiian legend about the god Kane sending a flood and only Nu'u escaped in a large boat that grounded on a mountain. Doesn't this prove that Noah's flood was global?

No. Wherever there are rivers there are floods, and local storytellers tell stories about these local floods. Later when Europeans taught the Genesis stories to the Hawaiians, local storytellers incorporated the name Nu'u and the mountain into the older Hawaiian river flood story.

Although the Babylonian flood and the Genesis flood are similar, they were not the same flood.

The similarities are not just general ideas like a flood and a boat; many unusual and distinctive phrases were copied word for word. Click here for a list of these similarities.

How did the kangaroos get from Mount Ararat to Australia?

There were no kangaroos in Noah's barge. Kangaroos are not mentioned in Genesis nor in Deuteronomy 14:4-18 where the kinds of clean and unclean animals are listed.

But Genesis 6:19 says "every living thing."

Noah loaded into the barge every living animal that he had. He did not load any animals he did not have. In the Epic of Gilgamesh XI, line 83 reads: "All the living beings I had, I loaded."

The 15 cubits in Genesis 7:20 must refer to the draft of the ark when it grounded on Mount Ararat and cannot refer to how much the water rose. Otherwise how could only 15 cubits of water cover mountains?

Mountains were not involved. Sumer was very flat. All the hills that Noah could see were less than 15 cubits high and therefore were submerged when the water rose 15 cubits.

If the flood was a local flood, why would Noah bother with a boat? Why not just move the animals and family overland to the foothills of the Zagros mountains?

Your hidden assumption is that Noah knew long in advance that the flood was coming. Actually he knew the flood was coming only when heavy rain began to fall. By then it was too late to travel to the mountains that were more than a hundred miles away.

How did Noah know the flood was coming?

During the annual inundation, the Euphrates River was at crest stage just below the top of the levees. When Noah saw heavy rain falling in the distance, he knew the river would be rising in a few hours. He did not have to be a metorologist to understand that the river would soon overflow the levees and his livestock and cargo would be destroyed unless he quickly loaded them onto a nearby river barge.

Why did Noah offer a sacrifice after the ark grounded?

It was the duty of ship captains to offer sacrifices to the gods at a local temple when their boats arrived safely. This was the ancient equivalent of an import tariff.

More questions are answered in chapter 12 of the Noah's Ark book.

http://www.flood-myth.com/faq.htm

[everybee]

Note this part

[everybee]

Note what this reviewer says about Noah here:



Reviewer: yaseen from Oakland , Ca.
Somebody commented on this book and said it was "one of the best books about ISLAM available." With all do respect, you must have a brain the size of a peanut if you believe that. Let me comment on a few things I remember that were not true or acceptable by Muslims:The Prophet killed 900 men, women, and children from the tribe of Banu Qurayza.

This story is told by Ibn Ishaq, who died 150 years after the event took place. Malik the jurist and others have called him an impostor his sources were unacceptable.

There were three tribes in Medina; Khaybar, Fadak, and Qurayza.
The first two surrendered before and after Qurayza surrendered to the Muslims, but they were all let go. It makes no sense that Qurayza were slaughtered when the others were not harmed.

The rule in Islam is to punish only those responislbe for treason. as the Koran says "No soul shall bear anothers burden."
The conclusion is that the ones who committed the crime were punished, not the whole tribe.

There are a few more testimonies that I could shred to pieces but I will comment on the one that said it was impossible for a flood to cover the whole world and that Noah could not have possibly gotten all the animals in the world in his ship.

The flood destryoed the people of Noah, not the entire world. It says in the Koran, "When the people of Noah denied the Messengers, We drowned them and We made of them a sign for mankind" (25:36) This apostate was confusing the Koran with the Bible which says the flood covered the entire world.

Yes, there are a few verses that say kill non believers. I am guilty as charged, BUT, it seems that IBN WARRAK has neglected to mention every time that it says to "kill non believers who attack you first. Then if they repent, still give them mercy.(4:89-90)

I suggest one read this book only if he wants to see all the venom that is being spewed on Islam. I recommend Understanding the Koran for Idiots and this website http://www.allaahuakbar.net/misconceptions/


http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1591020689/ref=pd_trkn_qp_b//002-5363140-4383263?v=glance
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origin of the mythology

[lilith]

Interesting, but this is before they found evidence of a comet striking mesopotamia 2300 years ago.
(Dating of the torah)
When the marches were drained by Sadam this evidence came to light.
So I like to look into it because just about five mayor events are of importance.
I found an egypt forum(another serious forum) when I thought I got stuck, and I am still reading up on things.
From tree of live , out of africa, root of religion and arks.
Part of it is letting go of the notion that Israël is just this local area as is today, but an understanding that they lived everywhere.
I'll get back to this one everybee.

[everybee]

refering to this thing written by
Reviewer: yaseen from Oakland , Ca.

[everybee]

Also see

THH Huxley's post on fossils
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origin of the mythology

[lilith]

Akkad period, c. 2334-2154 BCE
http://www.mt.net/~watcher/newun.html

Also in greek mythology one mentions comets as in the story ethiopean Enoch tells, as does ancient chinese history.
bc 2334 is relevant since this earth encompassing cosmic event with comets originating from what is percieved as the center of the milky way, seems to have occured.
JHWH as mentioned in the bible(or rather the tanakh)seems to stand for four gods. In a proper translation of the genesis myths it is clear that multiple gods are involved.

[lilith]

are you referring to the malik that is also deemed responsible for verse 5:3?
(written when he was about 15 to 24 years of age. about 58 to 75 years after te demise of mohammed.)
Or are you referring to the nowadays controversial law scholar malik?

[everybee]

Has the Garden of Eden been located at last?

http://www.ldolphin.org/eden/
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origin of the mythology

[dj]

I think it has. I found this http://www.sevenfoldbooks.com/eden/enoch_ezekiel.htm
Not sure??

[lilith]

somewhere in this science fiction booklet is the mention of a place where sweet water flows under salt water.
local merchantships en fishermen know where to dive for this treasure.
it's located somewhere near nowadays kuwait if i remember correctly.
'He devided the waters' has a different meaning with this in mind.

If adam indeed means fertile plain then a lot of rewriting/translating has to be done.
In judaic they translate it as lifegiving breath and only when Eve comes in the picture, peopled plains become a possibility.
The judaic myth states that they came from perzia to create a prieststate with a government (the heavens and the earth) in israel.
And that is whre they made the myth a compilation of possibilities intermixed with guidelines.
A christian used to nowadays translations would never distinguish between a virgin not given birth yet be it man and female are meant to start life together or female that never knew sexual intercourse. Because it's simply not to be found, hence also the weird conception of the lady mary.
Bit sad that Tenakh and NT were bundled up as if they are a natural sequence. Gave and gives rise to a lot of misunderstanding.
Their can only be one
But the main thing that was never understood is that the first chapter is a compilation of possible creation stories i.e. when we came to live here this is what we found. So quite clear are egypt and sumer myths and the differences in the descriptions.
Christians prefer the egypt one that ends with the book of the dead eg heaven.
The remarkable thing is that the people that should know what it is all about do not embrace this interpretations.
The other funny thing is that (slavic) enoch describes the whole gamut of possibilities and even one that coincides with the recent discovery of 150 earthwork and wood round temples in the area ranging from nowadays germany all the way to Turkey that are dated 4600-4800 years.

I take it that he was one of the last nomads who met the celts. Again the coincidece that the legend of enoch is also known in England and that celtic rhunes have also been found in South Africa.
Given all these other possibilities the bible becomes quite a boring beginning, dictated middle and predictable end.
If that's all then give me evolution and history any day.

The vatican has the plan to rewrite the bible according to the dead sea scrolls and their Essene interpretation. So be prepared to receive jezus the rebel in your life

by the way have you read the adam and eve story. he keeps dying, almost slapstick. it's by the way the only possiblity to meet God.
To meet the living God spelled disaster for a mere mortal and judeans had a special intermediairy.
In the beginning there where muliple gods.Think of godkings as was the tradition in persia. Archeology is recently started on de destruction wrought by the peasant alexander and lo and behold they found a structure that might have been the spitting image of a davidian temple but then huge.And countless images of all sorts of people bringing tribute.
Mozes did away with the last of the gods that had become a bit of a fire hassard for the unsuspecting sacrificial 'volunteer' and placed the responsibility for the well-balanced life with the people, so that by the goodness, written laws and just society strangers would flock in to know their G-d. Where one goes or even does not go or even incarnates after death is ones own choice.Nobody knows and since one aspires to be pleasant nobody has any vested intrest in heaven , missery on earth or hell and damnation.
Banning was common for criminals and had you with your nose chopped of somewhere in the sinai near the mediterrenean.

So why jezus would have it differently then mozes is anybodies guess. paul was an epileptic just as mohammed was and joan of arc.
But islam again is a different middle eastern version of christianity and so described by Byzantians who borrowed form other judaeic books that the orthodox and RK church did not include in their canon.

A huge comet fell on the marshes in iraq about - 2300 ( the same firestorm as described by enoch and in greek mythology the fight between seven...and the monsters.) only when the marshes dried up, due to dambuilding, did one find the evidence. So my vote is all for the sumer fertile plains.
The journey of jason and the argonauts turns out to be some alchemical texts and could coincide with the smaragd tables of hermes tresmegistus. In this way we can give even the greek myths a bit of a dating.
Athena was a black queen that came walking from africa when the waterlevel in the mediterrenean was about 120 metres lower.
Zeus might as wel be a different name for Africa. Athena born from the head of Zeus. Greek people still have African genes. (we all do but they are a bit younger)
So before the flood that brought the ark from turkey to libanon.
The aegean contains a huge underwater vulcano also recently discovered. And part of enoch I feel inclined to place in the mediterranean and the fertile cresent.

So lots still to be puzzled over. But i am quite pleased with the south of iraq as a land of the fertile plain
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"You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean;
if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.
Where there is love there is life."
Mahatma Gandhi